CLIENT
Birchwood Park
SECTOR
Business
TECHNOLOGY
SOLAR PV
SYSTEM SIZE
439.2 kWp
Year 1 Energy Savings
79,000 kWh
YEAR 1 SAVINGS
£70,000
LOCATION
Warrington
The Background
Birchwood Park is the UK’s largest out-of-town business destination and is home to more than 165 companies and 6,000 employees.
Delivering solar PV across this kind of multi-building commercial estate requires technical certainty, financial clarity, and close collaboration between all parties.
Perfect Sense Energy led the technical design and delivery of five solar PV systems at the heart of Birchwood Park, developing a robust, scalable solution tailored to the estate’s operational and ownership requirements.
The Solution
To support the commercial case, we introduced GreenHearth, specialists in arranging finance for renewable energy projects, to undertake detailed economic and financial analysis. GreenHearth worked with a range of potential funders before securing a flexible funding solution through SMS, enabling the project to proceed without upfront capital expenditure. Despite the complexity of the estate, the programme was completed on time and on budget, demonstrating how the right combination of expertise and partnership can unlock decarbonisation at scale.
The Results
Across the five rooftop systems totalling 439.2 kWp, Birchwood Park is expected to generate approximately 360,194 kWh of clean electricity each year, delivering over £70,000 in first-year electricity savings. Importantly, those savings exceed the annual rental payments, meaning the project is forecast to be cash-positive from Year 1.
The project was funded using a proven finance lease model provided by SMS, offering Birchwood Park:
Long-term energy cost certainty and resilience
No upfront capital investment
Predictable fixed rental payments
Stage payments to support efficient project delivery
“This project strengthens Birchwood Park’s long-term energy resilience and reinforces our commitment to leading on sustainability. By cutting energy costs for our occupiers and reducing our carbon footprint, we’re proving that commercial performance and low-carbon ambition go hand in hand.”
Martin O’Rourke Commercial Director,
Birchwood Park
“Projects like Birchwood Park show what can be achieved when technical delivery, funding expertise and client ambition align. We engineered a solution that works across a complex estate, while our partners provided the financial flexibility to remove barriers to investment. The result is a scalable model that cuts costs and carbon from day one.”
Gary Brandwood Managing Director,
Perfect Sense Energy
Following the success of this programme, Birchwood Park and its partners are exploring further opportunities to expand on-site generation across the estate. The approach proven here will also be used as a blueprint for similar portfolio-level projects across the commercial and leisure sectors.
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